Soba Noodles For Lunch

This is one of my favorite meals for lunch, and I prepare it entirely at home.

I cooked two bundles of soba noodles and then set it aside.

Then I make the broth. I added to simmering water a packet of instant dashi mix. Then I added a tablespoon of miso paste. That's the broth, and by itself, it makes a good accompaniment to the noodles. But of course I didn't stop there.

I added cut daikon radish, shiitake mushrooms, napa cabbage, tofu, and wakame (sea weed). The whole broth mixture was then ladled onto the bowls of soba noodles. I garnished it with roasted seaweed on the side.

It may not look much, but it was a very satisfying, cheap, and nutritious meal to have for lunch.

Zz.

Sinigang

"Sinigang" is a popular Filipino dish but it also shares similarities with dishes found in southern Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia.  It is a tamarind-based soup broth and one can almost put anything into it. Common ingredients in it can be green beans, daikon radish, okra, bitter melon, etc... The protein can be chicken, beef, fish, shrimp, etc.

The one that I often make is with those veggies and either with chicken or beef. I admit that I often take shortcuts. Instead of making the broth from scratch, I often make this on a weeknight using a pre-made package for the broth.

Of course, I just don't pour it in. I doctor it a bit. What I normally do is I have 4 or 5 thick pieces of ginger, and smash 3 cloves of garlic. I fry the smashed garlic (you don't even have to chop 'em) in a couple of tablespoon of oil in a large pot until you get the garlic aroma. Then I add the appropriate amount of water. Add the ginger and the sinigang package, stir, and let it come to a boil.

Once it is boiling, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes so that the flavor develops, especially with the ginger.

Then add your protein (chicken or beef). Let it come to a boil and then simmer slowly until done.

Adjust seasoning. It should have a slightly sour taste from the tamarind. Optionally, you can add 3 tablespoons of fish sauce.

Then add the veggies. I always have bitter melon, daikon radish, and green beans. Cook until veggies are done. I often serve this alongside rice and kimchee.

If you like it hot, you can add whole Serrano peppers at the same time that you add the veggies. Then whoever wants it with a kick can serve it him/herself and break the pepper in the broth. It will add quite a kick to the soup.

Zz.

Malaysian Chicken Noodle Soup

I mentioned a few days ago of making a Malaysian Chicken soup. It turned out pretty well. I used the broth as the soup base for my noodle soup.

The noodles are thin rice noodles. The garnishes for the soup are the shredded chicken (actually, it is hen) meat, mung bean spouts, Vietnamese basil, caramelized shallots, and a squeeze of lime.

I served it at a small dinner party, and I thought it went quite well. Everyone loved it.

I still have some leftover broth, which I've been consuming for lunch with a bit of noodles and spouts. It is still good even after a few days.

Zz.

Malaysian Chicken Soup

OK, I'm having people over for dinner, and I'm going to serve Malaysian Chicken Noodle soup. I've started this morning to make the soup.

Unlike the standard, American chicken soup, the Malaysian version has a lot more spices to flavor the broth. I'm starting everything from scratch. I'm not using even any pre-made chicken broth.

I bought a whole hen (not chicken, so the name of the dish is misleading), and this is what I'm using not only to make the broth, but also later on serve the meat as part of the dish. The reason why I'm using a hen is because I want to simmer the broth for a long time. A typical supermarket chicken will simply fall apart and turn to mush if I simmer them for as long as I intend to. A hen is older, and frankly, has a lot more chicken flavor.

But what makes this different than the standard broth are all the whole spices that I added. The spices are: cinnamon sticks, whole cardamom, whole cloves, whole star anise, and pepper corns. I also put 3 sticks of lemon grass, 3 stalks of celery, one large onion, 5 cloves of garlic, and 5 thick slices of ginger root.

It is simmering slowly right now and the whole house smells wonderful! I'm going to simmer this for about a couple of hours, and then I'll fish out the chicken.. excuse me, the hen pieces and let them cool down. Then I'll shred the meat, and put the bones back into the pot and let then simmer for another hour.

When that is done, I'll strain the broth and I'll end up with the most flavorful soup base for my noodle soup. I'll post some more on how things progress, including the final dish.

Zz.

Pho For Lunch

Had one of my most favorite food for lunch this past weekend: Vietnamese pho at House of Pho in Hoffman Estates.

When we used to live in the city (Chicago), we often go to Argyle street, which is the epicenter of Vietnamese neighborhood, and we always have Pho there. Our favorite restaurant was 777.

When we moved out to the 'burbs, it was one of the food that we missed. It is quite a trek to go back to Argyle street to get our Pho fix, so it was quite a joy to discover House of Pho. While their Phos are not as flavorful as 777, they are still quite good and give us what we have been missing.

Zz.

Chap Chye

OK, this is one of those unsung dishes where it is typically served only at home (if you lived in a South East Asian household), and it probably has a million different variations for each household. I don't even know if this is the correct name, where it originated, or if this was the result of people simply adding things together and then calling it a dish.

I found a similar dish online, where it is called a Nyonya vegetable stew or Chap Chye. "Nyonya" is a word used in SE Asia that indicates a Chinese woman or mother, and Nyonya dishes are typically Chinese dishes that may have undergone a few local additions.

The version that I'm familiar with is not exactly this, but it is close enough. Interestingly enough, I think I've only made it, at most, 4 or 5 times in my life. And each time I made it, I didn't go by any recipe. I simply put things together from memory, and then adjusted the flavors until I think it match what I remember, or at least, as close as I could remember. It isn't that it is difficult to make, since you simply dump everything into a pot. It is just that there are a lot of ingredients, and most of the ingredients are not what you would normally find in a typical American supermarket, to say the least.

I'm not going to list a recipe (you can look it up on that link). Rather, I'll show the ingredients that I used to make this dish this past weekend.

This is cellophane noodles. This might be easier to find since I've seen them in regular supermarkets. Here, it is soaking to soften it before I add it to the stew.

There are two ingredients in the picture below, both are soaking in water. The first one towards the left of the picture is dried tofu skins. The second one, the thinner strands, are dried lily flowers. Both need to be soaked for about an hour before adding them to the stew.

These are dried wood ear fungus or mushrooms. They also will be soaked for an hour before cutting them up into bite size pieces and adding them to the soup. Interestingly enough, the flavor of these mushrooms is quite subtle. What I like the most is the texture. They become soft but crunch. If you have had seaweed salad, you'll find the texture to be similar.

Fish balls. I happen to have this brand, but any fishballs will do. I was making a large pot of stew, so I used the entire bag.

These are dried Shiitake mushroom. Also need to be soaked for about an hour, and then sliced.

This is one of the flavor base. This is fermented, salted soy bean. I used about 2-3 tablespoons of this. I mash it lightly and then added to the broth. The broth is just water and light soy sauce, with salt and pepper to taste.

I first make the broth. Once I get a rolling boil and after adding all the seasonings, I first add the wood ear fungus. I let this boil for about 10 to 15 minutes, then I add all the rest of the ingredients at once. Cook this again for another 10 minutes and then add green onions. It is then ready to serve. The stew should be a bit more soupy than a regular stew.

This is what it looks like when it is done. 

I serve this with rice. In fact, I've often ladle this into a bowl of rice and turn it into a rice soup or stew. You can also break a raw egg into the boiling stew and poach it. Serve a poach egg with the rest of the stew for each guest.

It is a very satisfying soup or stew during the cold months, which is interesting because I grew up eating this in the tropics where the weather is always hot and humid.

Zz.

A Good Hot Bowl Of Miso Soup

It is a cold, wet, windy, and dreary day here in the Chicagoland area. And since I don't feel like having a regular lunch, I opted for a nice steaming bowl of miso soup filled with napa cabbage, wakame (seaweed), tofu, and green onions.

It was just the perfect meal, light but filling. I would have used kombu to make the dashi (stock), but I didn't have time. So instead, I used a powdered kombu/soup seasonings that I added to the boiling water before I added a tablespoon of miso paste.

Now my tummy is quite satisfied, and I feel all warm inside. This soup has always been satisfying on a cold day like this.

Zz.